Literacy skills are essential for a child’s development, and starting early will equip them with this knowledge for life.
Aside from reading and understanding written text, listening is critical for building vocabulary, comprehension, and language abilities. Our “Listening Activities For Kids” post highlights the importance of developing active listening skills, which involves grasping the message of what is spoken beyond simply hearing the words. To ensure your child develops listening and literacy skills, introduce them to audiobooks. These excellent resources provide a new way to “read” a book by listening to a narration, helping them stay engaged with a story.
Through audiobooks, they can improve active listening and discover life-changing titles that can give them a deeper appreciation of storytelling. Here’s how to use audiobooks to build your child’s literacy and love of reading:
Find diverse material
Children may not seem interested in listening to audiobooks at first; even if they do listen to them, it can be challenging to keep them engaged. However, allowing them to explore various titles can help them find something they’ll enjoy and expose them to a wide range of stories and themes. Digital audiobook libraries are a great place to find all kinds of audiobooks without buying multiple materials, so there’s no shortage of titles for your child to discover. Everand’s children’s audiobooks provide a diverse selection, from long-time favorite reads to newer trending titles. They can enjoy the timeless magic of classics like The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry or connect to characters like Auggie in R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. Whether it’s fantasy, biographies, or coming-of-age stories, there’s something for every child to enjoy. Allow them to explore the library on their own and let them pick out the audiobooks they want to read. Doing so may help them stay engaged and encourage them to find other similar stories or experiment with other genres if they prefer something else. Giving them that freedom can plant a seed of excitement and love for reading by showcasing how varied audiobooks can be.
Listen together
Reading aloud to your child is one of the best things you can do for their development. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), it helps build language, cognitive, and social-emotional development in early childhood and strengthen parent-child relationships. However, audiobooks are a different case, as there’s another narrator in the picture, but you can still make it a bonding and enriching experience by listening together. A shared story can give everyone something to talk about and foster great memories to look back on. It can also help you develop your child’s literacy and processing skills by asking them questions about what they’ve heard. This can help them better understand the story and encourage critical thinking. Take turns talking about your favorite parts or the lessons learned from the audiobook.
Combine audiobooks with other media
While audiobooks are great reading resources on their own, they can also be used to support other reading ventures for a bigger boost in literacy and love of reading. Using a mix of both print books and audiobooks can make the reading experience more exciting and educational, aiding in literacy development in different ways. Alternate between the two materials during reading time or use a physical copy while listening to the audiobook to create a connection between text and audio. You can also introduce them to adaptations of the audiobooks they listen to, allowing them to make connections or spot differences between the original story and scenes in the film, giving them a deeper understanding and appreciation for the work. Adaptations of popular children’s books like 101 Dalmatians or Captain Underpants can be watched on streaming platforms like Netflix or Hoopla for easy access. You can make the audiobook listening experience even more enriching and in-depth, allowing your child to approach literary works in many ways.